An Approach to Sustainable Development Based Energy and Climate Policy

Planning for India’s energy future requires addressing multiple and simultaneous economic, social and environmental challenges. While there has been conceptual progress towards harnessing their synergies, there are limited methodologies available for operationalizing a multiple objective framework for development and climate policy. We propose a ‘multi-criteria decision analysis’ (MCDA) approach to this problem, using illustrative examples from the buildings and cooking sectors. An MCDA approach enables policy processes that are analytically rigorous, participative and transparent, which are required to address India’s complex energy challenges.